the kitchen

[rainbabies]

is the one room in the house where i cannot take the clutter! it drives me batty to have the counters covered in crap! everytime i clean them off, dh comes in with his crap and spews it everywhere.

*wallet
*beeper
*palm pilot
*watch
*millions of pens
*various little pieces of paper
*clipboard
*notebook (litttle)
*notebook (large)
*stethescope(gross)
*keys
*cell phone
*belt
*tie
*tie clip

WTH, how hard is it to put it somewhere else???

of course the kids have to bring toys in the kitchen too. everynight, i gather them and dump them back in the bedroom.

so, what room bothers you with clutter?

My office area. That is the easiest thing to call it but it isn't really it's own space with a door. If that were the case, it wouldn't be so bad. We have an open floor plan, so the desk/computer/kids papers and art supplies/bills/etc are all in one area, visible from the other parts of the house. It's where papers go to get lost. I try to keep up before DH gets to it because then things get "put away" aka -- lost.

The kitchen, which is also in view from every room on the first floor (open floor plan). My dh does EXACTLY the same thing. My counter top looks like we have an electrical power grid running. Blackberry, PDA, pager, headphones - all just sitting on the counter top. Add to that the wallet, keys, and all of this other crap . I spend all day walking around, picking things up and finding them homes -- and then he walks in and drops his crap.

SHOES are the worst. We have an island in the kitchen, straight in from the garage door. He walks in and kicks his shoes off at the island. He still needs to walk RIGHT BY the closet in order to get upstairs and change his clothes, but the shoes get kicked off at the island. Even my boys are known to walk over, pick up the shoes and say "Dad - why do you always leave your shoes in the kitchen? You KNOW they go in the closet."

[rainbabies]

OMG, the shoes. dh leaves his sneakers and dress shoes in the mudroom. hospital shoes are a no no in the house. but, the thing is, he leaves them in the MIDDLE of the mud room and they never fail to trip me up!

he is also know to leave his slippers/flip flops in the MIDDLE of the entry way....which you can also use to cut thru the kitchen. again, who trips on them? me, because shoes are not suppose to be in the middle of a room!

[SuzySunshine]

I put a small table by the front door where DH comes in from the garage and he now dumps all of his stuff there - at least its not all over my house now.

He does still have a habit of leaving books lying around though - we've decided in our next house, his office needs to be on the main level because since his office is in the lower level he NEVER goes down there except to get something and then never puts it away!

Kitchen here, too. I can't stand counter clutter! No matter what I do, it never seems to stay cleared! Mail, toys, art, random paper clutter, it never disappears!

Actually, DH is the only one who can't seem to manage putting his shoes away. I've trained our kids (and we now have 5) to put their shoes in a specific area. Now if I can only train DH!

[samssugarmomma]

I can't stand clutter in any room! :! I'm very anal about making sure that everything is in its place. I try to tell myself that it is because I am very forgetful and if everything isn't where it is supposed to be then I'll never be able to find anything...but really...I'm just a neat freak! I have a bin in several rooms that I toss DD's toys into after she goes to bed. Once every few days I get the toys out and put all of the "same sets/parts" in the same bin.

We have a "key basket" that is big enough for all of DH's pocket crap (what is it with the tiny pieces of paper??) and I have a basket on his dresser for more of his stuff. Now that DD can reach the table and move/hide his stuff, he is all about using the key basket and the basket on his dresser!

We are still working on the shoe thing though! One day, he had four pairs of shoes lying around the house. Leaving his (cowboy) boots out is the worst! Those things are huge!

[DCJenn]

I bought my husband one of those boxes for the top of his dresser (Red Envelope) and he uses that now to keep the keys/pager/wallet/id/money
and tiny papers (and yes, what is with the tiny papers)

I go through the mail every day and dump everything that's not a bill or a magazine. Bills get entered into the computer that evening and then the statements stay for ONE month or until the bill is paid.

I have very little counter space so I don't have the luxury right now of clutter.

Nikolai's toys stay in Nikolai's room. He can have them strewn all over his room but I will NOT step on a lego at 3am. He will bring toys out to play with but he takes them to his room when it's bedtime.

I am so anti-clutter that it's actually turned me anti-decorations. If it requires dusting, watering or any other maintenance, I want no parts.

Jenn

[samssugarmomma]

If it requires dusting, watering or any other maintenance, I want no parts.

Amen!!